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South Shields

★★★★★Firing
Faces E low to mid tide Offshore West Best swell North East

Best of the week: Wednesday around 18:00, 4–5 ft and offshore.

Surf now3–4ft1.1 m at 9 s from the N, wind sea 0.2 m from the SW
Wind7mphSW · offshore · gusts 13
Tide 1.4mRising · high 06:04 (4.4 m). Works low to mid tide.

Seven days

best session each day · swipe
Sat
2–3 ft Swell N 8s Wind 8 mph ★★★★★
Sun
2–3 ft Swell E 11s Wind 3 mph ★★★★★
Mon
3–4 ft Swell N 8s Wind 25 mph ★★★★★
Tue
4–5 ft Swell N 8s Wind 23 mph ★★★★★
Wed
4–5 ft Swell N 8s Wind 16 mph ★★★★★
Thu
4–6 ft Swell N 9s Wind 7 mph ★★★★★
Sat 14 Sun 15 Mon 16 Tue 17 Wed 18 Thu 19
Time 06 09 12 15 18 06 09 12 15 18 06 09 12 15 18 06 09 12 15 18 06 09 12 15 18 06 09 12 15 18
Surf ft 2–3 1–2 1–2 1–2 1–2 1–2 1–2 2–3 2–3 2–3 4–6 3–5 2–4 3–4 3–4 4–5 3–5 3–5 3–5 3–5 3–5 3–5 3–5 3–5 4–5 4–6 5–7 5–7 5–7 5–7
Swell 8s 3s 3s 3s 3s 3s 6s 8s 11s 12s 7s 7s 8s 8s 8s 8s 7s 7s 7s 7s 8s 8s 8s 8s 8s 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s
Wind mph 8 7 11 8 13 10 11 9 3 11 24 25 22 15 5 23 20 22 22 21 19 19 16 17 16 7 9 13 14 14
Tide m 4.4↑ 3.1↓ 1.8↑ 3.2↑ 4.6↑ 4.1↑ 3.5↓ 2.0↓ 2.8↑ 4.3↑ 3.7↑ 3.8↓ 2.4↓ 2.5↑ 3.9↑ 3.2↑ 3.9↓ 3.0↓ 2.4↑ 3.4↑ 2.6↑ 3.8↑ 3.5↓ 2.4↓ 2.9↑ 2.1↑ 3.6↑ 3.9↓ 2.7↓ 2.3↑
Rating ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★

Surf is the face height at the beach after the swell is filtered for the way South Shields faces. Arrows point to where the swell and wind come from: an arrow pointing up means from the north. Tide is the height at River Tyne (North Shields) above chart datum, rising ↑ or falling ↓; the rating drops when the tide is outside the window this break works on. Amber marks the sessions worth setting an alarm for. From Tuesday the swell comes from Météo-France's 10-day model, which is coarser than the 5 km German model used close in. Hours no model reaches are left blank, not shown as flat.

Exposure

South Shields faces east. Measured from the seabed, it is open to swell from N round to SE; the brighter a wedge, the deeper the water in that direction and the more of the swell gets in. Anything from behind the headlands scores nothing, however big the buoy says it is.

NESWfaces ENSW
N
1.1 m at 9 s (swell) · 100 % reaches the beach
SW
0.2 m at 2 s (wind sea) · 3 % reaches the beach

How South Shields works

Swell
Best from the north east.
Wind
Offshore is from the west; anything with east in it is onshore and messes it up.
Tide
low to mid tide.
Getting there
Head north from Whitburn on the coast road and turn right to the tennis courts and skate park etc. loads of parking

Several Peaks that can produce fast walling barrels if the sand banks are right, can hold up to about six foot or more on the right conditions, uncrowded on weekdays. Works at all stages of the tide but best mid to low.

Tide times

  • Fri 23:51Low1.4 m
  • Sat 06:04High4.4 m
  • Sat 11:58Low1.8 m
  • Sat 18:04High4.6 m
  • Sun 00:30Low1.6 m
  • Sun 06:49High4.2 m
  • Sun 12:37Low2.0 m
  • Sun 18:49High4.4 m

River Tyne (North Shields) station, 1 km away. Heights above chart datum, UK time.

Photos

In the gallery
Looking south down Sandhaven beach - geograph.org.uk - 5995662 Dunes and beach at South Shields - geograph.org.uk - 8104609

Robert Graham, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. David Martin, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Comments

28 Aug 2005 · fydo normally a good swell at trow. you'll meet some real gnarly guys at trow there ill you'll have a gr8 time if the surfs hot.

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